


Courtship

by Melyanna (darthmelyanna)



Series: west-gate: A West Wing/Stargate Crossover [7]
Category: Stargate Atlantis, The West Wing
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-10-19 12:34:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17601455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darthmelyanna/pseuds/Melyanna
Summary: This wasn't quite a fairy tale, but it was close enough.





	Courtship

Ellie felt like her eyes were going to cross after having stared down her microscope all day. Her work here in Atlantis wasn't substantially different than her work on Earth had been, but longer days made the hours seem more grueling. Even after three months, her body still hadn't quite adjusted to it.

After squeezing her eyes shut for a moment, she returned to her observations, knowing she just had fifteen minutes before her shift was over. But before long she heard footsteps, and she quickly recognized her boyfriend's gait.

Marcus placed his hands on her shoulders first, and Ellie's eyes slipped closed as he gently worked her muscles. She wasn't particularly tense, but a massage was something she'd never say no to. After a bit, he stopped and grabbed a stool from a nearby table so he could sit behind her. His arms went around her waist and his chin rested on her shoulder. "What are you up to?"

Ellie sighed. "Truthfully? Procrastinating."

He chuckled. "Bad Dr. Bartlet."

Lightly she traced a fingernail along the back of his hand. "I've only got a few minutes left before I'm off for the night."

"So what were you doing before?"

She gestured to a small fern nearby. "As I understand it, this little guy was brought to Atlantis a little over a year ago," she explained. "The natives on its planet called it the life bloom. The medical and botanical researchers have suspected for a while that it could be a cure for cancer. Leukemia, specifically, but they never narrowed it down further than that."

"That sounds pretty narrowed down to me." He turned his head to kiss her neck.

Ellie's breath caught in her throat for a moment at the feel of his mouth against her skin. "Leukemia's not exactly a specific disease," she said. "It's a class of cancers affecting the blood or the bone marrow."

"Hence why we needed an oncologist here," Marcus said.

"Pretty much."

He turned his attention back to her neck, and Ellie knew she wasn't getting anything else done in the minutes she had remaining. She thought about telling him they really couldn't do this while she was on the clock, but then his mouth reached her collarbone, and her words were swallowed up by a gasp.

She could feel him grinning. "So, have any plans tonight?"

"No," Ellie replied, pulling away from him and standing up so she could pack up everything that didn't need to sit out overnight. "I'm all yours."

She glanced over her shoulder, and he was smiling at her in a way that made her feel flushed all over. She hadn't felt like this with a guy in ages. Of course, she hadn't been with a guy in ages either, but that was beside the point.

"Well, it's movie night," Marcus suggested. "We could sit in the back and not watch."

He raised a brow comically, and Ellie laughed. "As pleasant as that was last week," she replied, "that's what we did last week."

"The movie was in Czech, and Zelenka didn't even show up to translate for us," he protested. "Even Shep and Dr. Weir were making out instead of watching, and they actually speak the language. What were you expecting me to want to do?"

Ellie sighed, still smiling a little. "I've spent all day sitting around and staring at things," she said. "I'd like to _do_ something."

He reached for her hand, rubbing his thumb over the back of it. "Give me an hour, okay? You can go back to your quarters and freshen up, maybe even change into something that isn't white." He tugged at the hem of her white shirt playfully.

"And what have you got up your sleeve?" Ellie asked.

Marcus stood up, his eyes locked with hers. Cupping her cheek, he kissed her softly. "Romantic dinner for two. Or something. We'll call it our fifth real date."

As he left, Ellie rolled her eyes. "Or something" could be any number of bad ideas.

* * *

  
Romantic dinner it was. Marcus showed her out to a lovely, secluded area away from the main living and working areas of the city. They sat on the ground on a blanket, stars above them and city before them. Marcus had even managed to procure a large picnic basket, which Ellie strongly suspected was the property of one John Sheppard.

There was actual chicken and fruit and vegetables, nothing that had been canned, and Ellie wondered how many favors he'd called in for this one. There was also a bottle of wine, compliments of Laura Cadman. When she asked about that, Marcus grinned and said the lieutenant owed him big.

Ellie had followed his suggestion and changed out of her uniform, opting for jeans, a white tank top, and a soft, sheer purple shirt over it. When she'd been packing for her move to Atlantis almost four months earlier, her older sister Liz had looked at that top in her suitcase and asked when she was planning on wearing it. Zoey, her younger sister, had insisted that she take it. Ellie had thought about the fairies in _Sleeping Beauty_ changing the color of the princess' gown over and over and just laughed.

This wasn't quite a fairy tale, but it was close enough. Like everything else in Atlantis, courtship had to be improvised.

As they finished up the meal by splitting a carton of ice cream, Marcus shrugged his denim jacket off and held it out to her. "You look cold," he said when she frowned.

She was, actually, so she took it gratefully. It was way too big on her, but it smelled nice. "You didn't tell me we'd be eating outside," she replied.

"I wanted to surprise you."

Ellie smiled and looked out over the magnificent view. "Well, you certainly did that," she said. "How'd you find this place?"

"Nothing exciting, really." Marcus looked at his spoon thoughtfully. "My team was doing its rotation of city exploration. A few days later I came back with a sketchbook."

"You draw?" Ellie asked, surprised. That was something she hadn't quite expected from him.

"Yeah," he replied. "Mom was an art teacher. She used me as a guinea pig all the time for her art projects. Guess I picked up a thing or two. I paint, too, but that's a special occasion kind of thing here."

"I can imagine," she said, thinking of a small group of amateur musicians that convened sporadically in the mess to play. Ellie had never seen the same group of people there twice. There just wasn't the luxury of that kind of consistent downtime here.

"Just don't let the biologists know," he warned.

"How come?"

"I lived with a biology major in college," he said. "He was forever asking me to sketch specimens for some reason. I don't want to chance that again."

Ellie laughed. "Don't worry. Your secret's safe."

"I should hope so," he replied. "I'm sharing my ice cream with you. And I'm a very good kisser."

She leaned forward across the carton. "Oh really?"

"Yeah."

Dessert was soon forgotten as they kissed slowly, and Ellie honestly couldn't remember the last time she'd been on a date that was as relaxed as this one. It had been a long time since she'd been on a date that hadn't involved Secret Service guards, and even though her father was no longer in office and the security wasn't quite as tight anymore, it still took a lot of nerve for a man to ask her out.

Somehow, she suspected that Marcus Lorne might have asked her out on Earth too, given the opportunity.

Marcus fumbled around, getting the lid back on the ice cream and putting that back into the basket without breaking contact with her. She nearly started giggling, but then he moved closer and began kissing her in earnest. His touch was warm and sweet.

He pulled away after a little while, his hand in her curls. "You should wear your hair like this more often," he said.

"This is my 'I don't care or don't have time' look," Ellie protested. She'd always preferred to straighten it if she wasn't feeling lazy.

"I like it this way," he said. "It's you." When she blushed, he smiled and kissed her lightly. "Time for some stargazing, maybe?" he added. "Might as well while it's clear out."

They stretched out side-by-side on the blanket, looking up at constellations which were utterly unfamiliar to her and listening as Marcus pointed out various ones they in the expedition had designated. When he was finished, he looked at her and said, "Tell me about your day."

Ellie turned her head. "Really?" she said. "Do you really want to hear about mold spores and a fern that's too delicate for its own good?"

"I like hearing you talk," he replied.

So she began to talk. As she described her day, her hand ended up in his, their fingers intertwining as they stared up at the stars.


End file.
